Adults in Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport are more active now than before the pandemic

Sport England said its Active Lives survey shows a strong recovery across England after Covid-19 impacted people's exercise habits, but added a significant proportion of the population are still not meeting the recommended amount of activity.

The survey reveals 65.1 per cent of 481 respondents aged over 16 in Portsmouth said they were active in the year to November 2022, exercising for more than two and a half hours a week. This is up from 63.8 per cent who said they were active pre-pandemic in 2018-19.

In Fareham the corresponding figure is 63.1 per cent of 495 respondents, up from 62.1 per cent in 2018-19. And in Gosport the corresponding figure is 63.8 per cent of 511 respondents, up from 56.1 per cent in 2018-19.

But in Havant the corresponding figure is 58.3 per cent of 490 respondents, down from 60.9 per cent in 2018-19.

A Local Government Association spokesperson said: ‘It is positive to see adult activity levels bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels and we echo recognition of those working and volunteering across the sport and physical activity sector to support people to be active.’

Nationally, 63.1 per cent of the population met the chief Medical officer's guidelines of doing 150 minutes or more of physical activity a week. Nearly the 63.3 per cent recorded in 2018-19.

Nick Pontefract, chief strategy officer at Sport England, said: ‘Yes, 29.1m people are meeting the chief medical officer's guidelines, but at the same time there are 11.9m inactive people – 1.2 per cent more than before the pandemic.’